Building sales of new developments rising


Robert Knakal (left) and Kenneth Horn

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After slumping in 2007, the market for new developments is beginning to bounce back, Crain’s reported. In Manhattan, the number of such sales nearly tripled to 16 in the first nine months of this year from the same period in 2009, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services. The average price more than doubled, to $38.75 million. Citywide, the number of sales grew 73 percent, while the average price also more than doubled, hitting $10.5 million.
“People are just more confident there is going to be an upswing in the economy,” said Robert Knakal, chairman of Massey Knakal. The growing number of building sales began to pick up late last year. Through the first nine months of 2010, the value of commercial property sales closed and under contract in Manhattan totaled $9.4 billion, up 168 percent from the $3.5 billion in deals completed all of last year, according to Cushman & Wakefield. According to residential developer Kenneth Horn, president of Alchemy Properties, “now is a really good time to buy.” Four months ago, he bought a development site at 35 West 15th Street for $16.6 million, according to city records, roughly 40 percent less than the owner wanted three years earlier. [Crain’s]